Burning the midnight oil to complete film

PUBLISHED: 10:48 02 February 2006 | UPDATED: 14:35 12 May 2010

Chris Murphy and John Harwood

TOMORROW evening Chris Murphy and cameraman John Harwood hope to complete the editing of a unique documentary on the Second World War. The documentary, Royston A Town at War, will be screened later this month during three showings at Royston Town Hall.

TOMORROW evening Chris Murphy and cameraman John Harwood hope to complete the editing of a unique documentary on the Second World War.
The documentary, Royston - A Town at War, will be screened later this month during three showings at Royston Town Hall.
Mr Murphy said: "We did 17 days of shooting and up to now it has taken about 200 hours of editing."
The documentary tells the story of life in the area during the war and the experience of those on active service.
Mr Murphy, who is chairman of the Royston branch of the Royal Air Forces Association, received a £7,750 grant from the National Lottery's Home Recall Fund to help meet the costs of making the documentary.
He has been working on the documentary for the past seven months.
"The initial thoughts about it were not as grand as it has become," he said. "It seems to have taken on a life of its own.
"It was when we started work that we began to realise that it was a much larger project than expected.
"It's just grown, but there are a lot of interesting parts to it and to cover such a subject is quite an achievement," he said.
Mr Murphy said the documentary would be "touching on everything" that surrounded the war-time years.
He continued that the documentary was not "an armchair history" of the whole area during the Second World War.
"It's designed to show an overview of the times and, perhaps, plant a seed in people's minds to discover more about the area and its history.
"It's been made to generate interest and I believe we have achieved that aim," said Mr Murphy.
Cameraman John Harwood, who runs Exposure TV in Hitchin, has become just as passionate as Mr Murphy about the project and it was him who was burning the midnight oil earlier this week working on the editing.
The documentary recalls the events that happened around Royston during the war and has memories of veterans who served in Europe and in the Far East.
- Royston - A Town at War will be screened at Royston Town Hall on Saturday, February 18 at 6pm and on Sunday, February 19 at 11am and 3.30pm.
Entrance is free.